Home Sweet Home

Someone walked in my house the other day and asked where I got all my cute artwork from and then I started realizing how much of my prints actually do come from Alexa Z Design. Her bright personality shines through in her art and that's exactly what I want filling my home (especially to offset my horrible tan walls). Above, she designed the Home Sweet home print and did the watercolor print of the Bountiful, UT temple! My friend, Corina, also did that cool watercolor painting of me and Devin on our wedding day.

It's been a while since I did any kind of home tour, so here are some more things that have made our house feel more like a home:




After taking the first photo I picked up this black frame at IKEA and think it matches the print a little better, what do you think? Either way, seeing this quote every morning as I come into the kitchen is exactly what I need to start my day off right! And I used her brilliant quote transfer tutorial last year to burn that cute Happy Harvest onto a piece of wood. Fall is my favorite season to decorate for!



I love having designated areas of play for my kids - not only does it help rooms stay tidier but it also gives them ownership over a special little place in the house. This under-the-stairs space was a big selling point for this house to me and Alexa's "play more" print was the perfect piece to focus the main role that it plays for us! I mounted it on an 8x10 art canvas vs framing it to make it stand out a little more.

And bringing that pallet-turned-bookshelf downstairs into this new little reading corner was the best decision ever. We've just discovered Usborne books at our house which has revamped Ava's love to "read" and browse books and our TV time has naturally gotten cut in half! I got rid of tons of books that neither of us even liked very much and replaced with some really great ones that she can often sit down and be entertained by without any assistance.



I've always loved having Ava's room be the most colorful room in the house and I've slowly been adding to it. When Alexa came out with these darling prints of "Have courage and be kind" I knew we had to have it. Ava just barely missed the huge Frozen obsession and has really gotten into Cinderella (which I'm totally okay with!) and I just can't help but hope for this to be a lifelong motto for her.

As you can see below and in a previous picture of our dining room above, I got into some stenciling as an attempt to brighten up our horrible tan walls. I plan on getting a tutorial up for that soon...in the meantime go check out Alexa's darling etsy shop and give her some love!

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We're Home!

We're homeowners!  Our BIGGEST accomplishment of 2013!

We could not believe how fast this all happened!  We looked at this house on December 2nd and loved it and put an offer down that night.  Fast forward three and a half weeks and we were moved in! I'll do another post with details of the house, but we just have to say how blessed we feel to have wonderful family who has helped and supported us through the decision, moving, and making this house feel like a home.  I had no idea we would feel as settled as we already are, a week after moving in.  
   Devin has been a go-getter as far as unpacking, fixing things, putting up blinds, curtains, etc.  No time wasted!  He's had 2 weeks of with work which has been such a blessing for us and he has used it to its fullest capacity, so thankful for his hard work!

We're happy to be staying in Meridian, in our same church boundaries, and close to a good school for Ava in the future.  We plan to be able to grow our family into this home for a long time to come which makes us less nervous about having just made the biggest purchase we've ever made!

Ever since we've been spending time looking at this house, painting the garage, and finally moving in, Ava has acted right at home.  So happy to see a big space for her to move around and play.  I am so thankful that she really had no adjustment problems except maybe the first night of sleep. 

We're excited to finally have room and seating for friends and family to come stay and hang out, so all are welcome! Pin It

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I may be biased because it's my birthday month but...

I'm also glad I live in a day in the world where we have a living prophet and apostles that speak to us through revelation from our Heavenly Father, who loves us and knows how much we need that guidance.

We will be tuning in HERE all weekend to here other inspiring messages.  What a way to start a wonderful month! Pin It

Memorial Day Weekend 2013 | Rafting Part 2

 Tyne watched the 3 girls while the couples got to raft - thank you!  I'm glad I didn't realize that we would be doing class IV rapids before I got in the raft or I think I would have been more nervous than excited.  I also felt bad for Devin and Patrick because they were the only ones in our raft who have ever done much rafting, so they were probably working a lot harder than the rest of us. It was really fun though! There's an exciting jittery feeling you get when you see the water disappear after a boulder and wonder what you'll face on the other side...but not such a great feeling if at this point you get thrown out of the raft and know you'll have to face it all on your own, which is what happened to Devin the third time he went down this part of the river...

 ^^The last group that went on Monday. Devin, Patrick, Tyne, Callie, and Bryce.

^^This is a pic from Saturday doing the same run, but where the raft is in this pic is probably close to where Devin fell out because it was at the top before the rapids started. 

See the unraveling below (taken by Race from the rocks along the river):

 ^^Devin is under water for both pics above (he was holding onto his paddle almost the whole time). There were actually about 4 pics between the two pictures above and Devin's head never surfaces in any of them!

 ^^And there he is...already so far away.

Callie said that at one point, with Devin gone, Patrick had them all "hunker" which means get down in the center of the raft.  This was because for how much they were getting thrown around, their paddling efforts weren't worth the risk of losing someone else.

Patrick couldn't leave the raft to get to Devin until they were out of the rapids and he knew the raft could hold its own without him there.  Because it was so cold that day, Devin had lots of layers on including a waterproof jacket that was filling up with water and making it harder for him to stay afloat. Devin said later that he was losing energy and breath FAST.  There was never time to get the air needed to sustain him underwater and prepare for the next wave that was going to push him under.  Patrick aborted the raft and finally got to Devin when he realized he was not holding up very well (it almost looked like he was just floating down the river having a good ol' time - it was hard to tell if he was struggling or not). It's a good thing he got to Devin when he did because Devin said that his energy went from 100% when he fell out of the raft to less than 10% when Patrick got to him.  He had started to black out and couldn't hear anything.  Scary!  Luckily he never hit his head on any rocks, but he did get pretty banged up on his elbows and knees.  He/we are SO thankful that nothing worse happened.

This was the only picture that I took of it.  I had my camera all ready to snap photos/video of them coming through the rapids, but as soon as I saw Devin floating outside the raft, I couldn't take my eyes off of him because I had to know that he was okay.  I got the worst feeling and knew that we had no time to lose, so I quickly snapped this pic and we ran back to the cars and raced to the next pull off spot to see if they caught up to him.  By the time we got there, the raft made its way to the side of the river and Patrick had swam Devin there so that he could get out when we got there. Patrick was ordering us to get him in ALL dry clothes, food, water, and don't let him fall asleep (at the time we didn't know if he hit his head on anything) - Devin was so drained that he could barely talk.
    I don't have any more pictures because the next hour was spent running around like chickens with our heads cut off getting dry clothes, food, and water for him and asking him millions of questions to make sure he was okay.  If you know Devin, you know this probably drove him crazy.  Luckily once he was dry and able to just sit in the truck for a little while with some food and water he felt tons better.  I was so scared to let him drive his truck to the spot where we were picking up the raft, but he absolutely insisted - saying it would help him get more energy/awareness.  I reluctantly let him and he was right - it kept him from falling asleep and he felt much better as time went on.

He still doesn't know how exactly he fell out, and neither does anyone else - it happened so fast at such a random time that they didn't realize he DID fall out until too late.  It was his 3rd time going down that rapid that weekend even. I'm not glad that it happened to him, but he is a really strong swimmer so I would have hated to see it happen to someone who might not have been and see things end worse.  At first Devin said he was never going rafting again - but I knew that wouldn't exactly be the case because he loves that stuff too much!  So, soon after getting home, he found someone on Craigslist selling a rafting helmet and a 25lb test life jacket.  He's now prepared for anything :)

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Easter Festivities

 The time we took a 4 month old, a 15 month old, a 3 year old, and a 4 year old out to the Lava Flows.  It was fun to see how Devin's truck could handle the dirt road out there!  If it hadn't been so windy, it would have been fantastic!  Neil was so nice to build us a fire to roast hot dogs on :)

 Saturday Easter Egg Hunt

 Checking out their stash :)

 Ava had a blast chillin in the stroller, which was the first time we used it because it's the first time we've been in nice weather! She was watching cousin Lily jump on the trampoline and thought it was so funny! She also cracked up any time Talane talked to her.

Be back soon!

We came back to Boise for church on Sunday because Devin was playing the organ and our choir was doing an Easter program.  Later that evening, we got together with some friends at a park for a picnic!

 Me and Emma with our babies :)

 Madison and Tuck have a bit of a love/hate relationship.  But it's so cute!

 Easter was such a lovely day to think about how lucky we are to know that all will be resurrected and what a glorious thing new life is, thanks to Jesus Christ.  I am looking forward to this weekend where we get to hear from our Prophet, Thomas S Monson and the Twelve Apostles in General Conference.  How lucky we are to have a prophet on the earth today who has a closeness with God like none of us do.  That he and those with the right authority can teach us by the spirit that we might learn what Heavenly Father would have us learn and do.  This time of year can get kind of busy with activities, so I am excited to have a weekend to just relax and soak it all in.   If you're interested in what this is all about, tune in on BYU-TV (if you have cable) or go here to watch online: gc.lds.org

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